"Poor fellow" cried the traveller; "and," he inquired, after a pause, "what became of his mother ?" "Ah, poor old lady!" replied the land.ord, "she took on so about it, that she died of a broken heart the day before." MEMOIR OF THE LATE SIR FRANCIS the blood of a fellow-creature, and die the death of a nurderer. Well, sir, the Kentons lived in comfort till about a year ago, when the old man was taken with the typhus fever. Still they did not despair, but thanked God that though the father was laid up, the son was able to earn enough to support them. Poor things! Even this consolation was soon denied them; and, in a few days, poor Tom had caught the fever, and was confined to his bed. The little money that they had saved up, soon began to diminish, and distress and poverty stared them in the (Abridged from the Gentleman's Magazine.) face. At last, their money was all gone,-they were turned FRANCIS LEGGITT CHANTREY was born on the 7th of April, out of their little cottage, and obliged to go to the work- and baptized on the 27th May, 1781, at Norton, a pleasant house. For three weeks, poor Tom lay delirious; though, village about four miles south of Sheffield. Within the last the fourth week, he got gradually better, and as soon as forty years, there stood on the lawn of Norton House, the he had picked up a little strength, he went out to try and ruins of an ancient Chantry, from which it was at one time as get some work. But his old master was not in want of sumed that the surname of the sculptor's family had been orihands at present, and after wandering about all day with-gally derived. It is certain that his ancestors had been long settled in and about Norton, the name being of early and fre out success, he was compelled to return at night, tired and disheartened. Tom was a lad of spirit, and he could not quent occurrence in the church register. Their rank in life was bumble: one of them was a huntsman, in connexion with bear the thought of living in a workhouse. All the night the family at Norton Hall. The father of Chantrey was a catwas he pondering over schemes for getting some employ-penter, who also rented and cultivated a few fields, besides ment, but he could determine on none; and, in an unlucky which he owned some land at a distance. The farm cottage hour, he listened to the persuasions of a gang of poachers (Jordan Thorpe,) in which the sculptor was born, still exists, to join them in their robberies. One crime led to another, although greatly modified; as does also the " Village School," till at last poor Tom did that which he would once have at which he learnt to read and write. His father died when shuddered at;--he resolved to run all hazards, and get a he was eight years old, and his mother married again. Of the little money, let the consequences be what they might; earliest developement of that presentiment of genius towards so, the next evening, having armed himself with a heavy sculpture, which it has pleased various biographers to attri bludgeon, he stationed himself by the side of the high That he at one period brought milk from Norton to Sheffield, in bute to young Chantrey, several accounts have appeared. road, with the determination of robbing the first passer-by barrels on an ass, is certain; though it has been added, he not He had not waited many minutes when he heard the only lingered on the road to form grotesque figures of the yelsound of footsteps, and he knelt down behind the hedge low clay, but moulded his mother's butter, on churning days, for fear of being seen. The night was very dark, and into resemblances of various objects, to the great admiration although he strained his eyes to catch a glimpse of the of the dairymaid! He was placed a short time with Mr. comer, he could see nothing. The noise, however, grew Ebenezer Birks, in Sheffield, with the intention of his becomlouder, and at last it sounded by his side. But his heart ing a grocer. It was doubtless while he was in this situsfailed him, and just as he was about to strike, his arm tion that his attention was first strongly attracted to the shop seemed to lose its strength, and he dropped his bludgeon. window of a respectable carver and gilder named Ramsey, to The man started, and Tom, finding himself discovered, whom, at his own request, he was apprenticed. At this time, raised his arm and struck at him. The blow was a heavy Mr. John Raphael Smith, mezzotint-engraver and portrait one, and the man was stunned; but while Tom was rifling painter, visited Sheffield, in his profession as an artist, and his pockets, he recovered, and grappled with him. Poor being occasionally at the house of Mr. Ramsey, Chantrey's devotion to the study and practice of drawing and modelling Kenton, in his despair, again seized his bludgeon, and did not escape his observation. He was the first to perceive dealt him another blow. The poor fellow groaned; and and appreciate his genius; he took pleasure in giving him inthen, though Tom listened eagerly, he could not hear him struction, and some years afterwards the pupil, when be had breathe. I cannot say what the poor hoy did when he become a proficient in art, perpetuated the recollection of his discovered that he was a murderer; all I know is, that in master in one of the finest busts that ever came from his hands. the middle of the night, he returned home laughing There also came to the town a statuary of some talent, who wildly, and crying out that he had killed his father. He taught him as much as he himself knew of the manual and was quite frantic, and they were obliged to put a strait technical arts of modelling and carving in stone. This inwaistcoat on him to prevent his doing himself a mischief. struction, such as it was, the young sculptor turned to good For several hours he lay screaming and struggling, and account; while, at the same time, he no less zealously culti declaring that he could see his father standing by his bed, hours were devoted to his favourite studies, and chiefly passed vated the sister art of painting. The whole of his leisure and shaking his fist at him. At last, he came to his senses again, and he then told the people who were round him in a lonely room in the neighbourhood of his master's, which he hired at the rate of a few pence weekly. Chantrey sepathat he had murdered a man, and that as he tried to hide rated from Ramsey before the expiration of his apprenticethe corpse in the thicket, he had found that it was his ship, making a compensation for the remainder of his term. father. He then took them to the spot, and there, exactly He visited London, and attended the school at the Royal as he had said, was the body of the poor old man, all Academy, but was never regularly admitted as a student. bruised and bloody. The news soon reached the constable's ears, and Tom was taken up, examined, and sent for trial. The sessions were on at the time, so the trial came on almost directly; and, as Tom confessed to the crime, it was soon over, and he was sentenced to be hanged. His friends tried all they could to get him pardoned; they sent petitions to the king, and even the mayor himself went up with one to London, but it was of no use. "Poor boy!" added the worthy host, dashing the back of his hand across his eyes, "there wasn't an eye in the village that was dry on the morning of the execution." In April, 1802, when only 20 years of age, Chantrey advertised in Sheffield to take portraits in crayons; as in Oct. 1804, be announced that he had "commenced taking models from the life." Several specimens of his talent, both in chalk and in oil, remain in the town; most of them rather prized for the subsequent celebrity of the artist, than as striking likenesses. Several years afterwards, when, having improved himself at busts of well-known characters there, as large as life. These the Royal Academy, he returned to Sheffield, he modelled four were such masterly performances, that when it was resolved to erect a monument to the memory of the Rev. James Wilkinson, and Chantrey, (though he had never yet lifted a chisel to marble,) had the courage to become a candidate for the commission, it was readily entrusted to him by the committee. Having employed a marble-mason to rough-hew the bust, he commenced the task, which was successfully achieved; and this very interesting work may now be seen in Sheffield church. Sheffield possesses two or three other mural monuments from bis hand. On the door of Sheaf House is also a smali bas-relievo of his very earliest modelling. His first exhibited work on the walls of the Royal Academy was in 1804, when he sent for exhibition a "Portrait of D. Wale, esq." He was then residing at No. 7, Chapel-street West, Mayfair. In 1805, he was living at 22, Vine-street, Piccadilly, and exhibited at the Academy, in that ye ir, three busts. In 1806, he lived in Charles street, St. James's, and exhibited a bust of Bigland, the essayist. In 1808, when at 24, Curzonstreet, Mayfair, he exhibited a colossal bust of Satan, still in his studio, and never executed in marble; and in 1809, he received his first order, from Mr. Alexander, the architect, for four colossal busts, of Howe, St. Vincent, Duncan, and Nelson, for the Trinity House, and for the Greenwich Naval Asylum. In 1809, he married, at Twickenham church, his cousin, Miss Mary Ann Wale, the present Lady Chantrey. He now removed to Eccleston-street, Pimlico, a place he never left. In 1810, he executed a bust of Mr. Pitt, for the Trinity House. But the year 1811 was that in which he may be said to have fairly commenced his career of fame and fortune. He had six busts in that year's Exhibition: 1. Horne Tooke; 2. Sir Francis Burdett; 3. J. R. Smith; 4. Benjamin West, P. R. A.; 5. Admiral Duckworth; 6. William Baker, esq. Those of Horne Tooke and Raphael Smith are among the best of his busts. Of one of them Nollekens expressed his great admiration. He lifted it from the floor--set it before himmoved his head to and fro, and having satisfied himself of its excellence, turned round to those who were arranging the works for exhibition, and said: "There's a fine, a very fine buste; let the man who made it be known-remove one of my busts, and put this one in its place, for it well deserves it." Often afterwards, when desired to model a bust, the same excellent judge would say, in his most persuasive manner: "Go to Chantrey, he is the man for a bust--he'll make a good bust of you; I always recommend him." He did recommend him, and sat to Chantrey for his own bust. In the same year he became, moreover, the successful candidate for a statue of George 111. for the ity of London. He had nearly lost it, however, by a difficulty which shows how little he was then known; for when the design had been approved of by the Common Council, a member objected that the successful artist was a painter, and therefore incapable of executing the work of a sculptor. "You hear this, young man," said Sir William Curtis, "what say you-are you a painter or a sculptor?" "I live by sculpture," was the reply; and the statue now in Guildhali was entrusted to his hands. A man, it is clear, though a Michael Angelo, may have too many occupations. This was his first statue, and it is at once easy and dignified. To give a catalogue of his works from this period is to tell the history of his life. In 1812, he exhibited busts of Jobnes of Hafod, of Curran, of Stothard, and of Northcote. In 1813, a bust of Cline and six others. In 1814 busts of the King and Professor Playfair. In 1815, a bust of James Watt. In 1816, busts of the Marquess of Anglesey, Sir Everard Home, and Sir Joseph Banks. In 1817, then newly made an associate of the Royal Academy, "The Sleeping Children," (the monument now in Lichfield Cathedral,) and busts of Nollekens, Sir James Clarke, Bone the enamelist, Bird the painter, and Hookham Frere. There is not a more exquisite group in the whole range of modern sculpture than Chantrey's Two Children, the daughters of the Rev. W. Robinson, in Lichfield Cathedral. The sisters lie asleep in each other's arms, in the most unconstrained and graceful repose. The snowdrops which the youngest bad plucked are undropped from her hand, and both are images of artless beauty, and innocent and unaffected grace. Such was the press to see these children in the Exhibition that there was no getting near them; mothers, with tears in their eyes, lingered, and went away, and returned; while Canova's now far-famed figures of Hebe and Terpsichore stood almost unnoticed by their side. There is a current report that the design for this monument was supplied by Stothard, but all the particulars of its composition have been faithfully recorded by Mr. Rhodes, the author of Peak Scenery. A request accompanied the commission from Mrs. Robinson, that Chantrey would see the monument, by T. Banks, R. A. to the memory of Sir Brook Boothby's daughter, in Ashbourn church, previously to making his design, as she wished to have something like it. Chantrey obeyed these directions, Mr. Rhodes being in his company; and the same evening he made, at Ashbourn, the design which, with scarcely any variation, was subsequently executed in marble. Orders now crowded in upon him as they were never known to crowd before upon a British sculptor. But be still adhered to busts and portrait statues, and left poetic figures to hours of leisure, never, alas! to come to him. In 1816, be was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and an Academician in 1818. In the latter year, he exhibited a bust of John Rennie, the engineer, one of his most admirable heads ; and that exquisite little statue at Woburn, of Lady Louisa Russell, the present Marchioness of Abercorn. The child stands on tiptoe, with a face of the most exquisite and arch expression, proud with delight of the dove which she fondles in her bosom. All who have been at Woburn will recollect this little figure; but the trays of the Italian boys have given it a wider, and only its deserved celebrity. (To be concluded in our next number.) New Books. THE EPICURE'S ALMANACK FOR 1842. A BAD dinner is no joke, and the want of a dinner would be a crying evil. In this little tome, the author (whom we take to be an accomplished diner-out,) provides against both the above ills of life: he gives a calendar of the months, with choice cuts; tables of the various dishes in season, and a collection of receipts Nearly every page of the book has its sauce piquante of jest, whim, and humour, but the author is in earnest at the same time; he is practical, and does not "dish" you out of your dinner. The Almanack portion is somewhat à la comique, with Cruikshanky cuts. The Anniversaries are odd: thus, in "January 18, Old Twelfth-day, Sir W. Curtis, importer of turtle, died, 1829; 21 -F. Quin, actor and epicure, died, 1766" here's immortality! the head-verse is:— "No meaner creatures, scan 'em all, We per But we have "a bone to pick" with the author: in the articles in season in January, he omits sea-kale, now in perfection; the boiled turkey and celery sauce is a good hint, because, at this season, one sometimes sees cod-fish and oyster-sauce, and turkey and oyster sauce in the same dinner, which is not exactly comme il faut. fectly coincide in the following: "A general invitation is no invitation at all. Don't wait for asking,' might be interpreted, if you do, wait you may.' "Pot-luck" is bad luck; "droppers-in can rarely be welcome in any properly ordered home." To be "treated as one of the family," is, sometimes, to be very ill-used. Those must be ultra-domestic, who would go out for the chance of a worse meal than they would have had at home." All this is true; and when a man says, "there is always a knife and fork for you" at his table, we consider there to be little else: the fact is, this is a species of economic hospitality which we never recognise;" words, words, words" will neither fill a bushel nor a tureen, but always indicate emptiness. VARIETIES. Starch.-The New Orleans Crescent relates that a man in that city was so much afflicted with stammering, that his physician advised him to drink a tumbler-full of starch in order to make himself clear-ly understood. He's so all-fired stiff now that he can't walk round a corner; and he's obliged to take out his back bone before he can take off his boots. Snake and Kangaroo.-Governor Grey and his party, when exploring the Glenelg River in North western Australia, had their attention drawn to a curious misshapen mass, which came advancing from some bushes with a novel and uncouth motion. Mr. Lushington fired, and it fell; when, on going up to it, he found it was a small kangaroo enveloped in the folds of a large snake, a species of boa. The kangaroo was quite dead, and flattened from the pressure of the folds of the snake, which, being surprised at the disturbance it met with, was beginning to uncoil itself, when Mr. Lushington drew out a pistol and shot it through the head. It was of a brownish- | yellow colour, and eight feet six inches long. The kangaroo was found to be very good eating; and the snake as great a delicacy as an eel, but rather tougher. Agriculture in Great Britain appears to be on the decline which comes of our manufacturing for all the world." Ac New Kangaroo.-There has lately been discovered in New Holland, a new species of kangaroo, among the burning sandstone rocks, where it bears the extraordinarily high temperature of 156°. Bahia, in Brasil, has a beautiful appearance from the sea, but is a filthy place within. Even the President's house is a dirty and wretched building; though his salary is 600l. a year. All the burdens here are carried by slaves, as there are no carts, and the breed of horses is as small as that of ponies: there are no roads in the interior of the country, but only narrow paths through the woods. The merchants of Bahia are principally English and German; and they import our cotton goods and hardware, and manufactured goods from Germany. The nuns of the place are famed for making artificial feathers and flowers. The price of a good slave is from 90 to 100%; although the slave trade has nominally been abolished. Twelfth-day in France.-Several officers of the garrison of Valenciennes assembled on January 6th, the Jour des Reis, (Twelfth-day,) in order to draw for the Roi de la Fere. The lot fell upon a captain, who was immediately hailed as king, mounted upon a large shield, and carried to a neighbouring café to celebrate his inauguration by partaking of a bowl of punch. The last of the Derwentwaters, who suffered so much in procording to the late census, in England the increase in 21 agri-perty and life for their adherence to the cause of the Stuarts, cultural counties, considering the ridings of Yorkshire as died lately at Acton Burnell, the seat of Sir Edward Smythe, three, has been, since 1831, only 8.40 per cent.; whilst in the in Shropshire. He had studied at Douay, whither he fled to remaining 21 counties it has been 17.30 per cent., or more England at the Revolution, and took shelter in the hospitable than double that of the agricultural counties. In Wales, the homes of the wealthy members of the Catholic faith in this disparity is still more striking for the six most agricultural country: he arrived at Acton Burnell, with other refugees, in counties have increased only 5 61, whilst the least agricultural 1793, and during the last twenty-six years had officiated as have increased 18.46 per cent., or more than threefold. In domestic chaplain to the family.-Shrewsbury Chronicle. Scotland the disparity is yet greater; the increase in the 16 most agricultural counties having been only 4.02, whilst in the remaining 16 it has been 15.19 per cent., or very nearly four times the rate attained in the agricultural counties. In the 21 most agricultural counties of England the mortality from June, 1838, to June, 1839, was only 1 in 52.93, whilst in the remaining 21 counties it was 1 in 45.86. A Poser. The town of Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe, is supplied with water by an aqueduct, the cost of constructing which, and keeping it in repair, is defrayed by a tax upon ail wine and spirits actually consumed in the town. Now, supposing the good people of Santa Cruz to turn teetotallers, how would they get supplied with their pet tipple, water? Q. Which are the best shoes to walk home in from a party, on a wet night? A.-Channel pumps. Graves of Explorers.-Governor Grey thus touchingly refers to the many explorers who die yearly in our new colonial possessions: "A strange sun shines upon their lonely graves; the foot of the wild man yet roams over them: but let us hope when civilization has spread so far, that their graves will be sacred spots; that the future settlers will sometimes shed a tear over the remains of the first explorer, and tell their children how much they are indebted to the enthusiasm, perseverance, and courage, of him who lies buried there." A People exterminated.-A few scanty vocabularies and some mummies from Teneriffe, scattered through the cabinets of the curious in various parts of Europe, are the only existing records of the Guanches, a race which held possession of Teneriffe and the neighbouring islands on the descent of John de Betancourt, about the year 1400, and who were exterminated by the Spaniards within little more than a century after. The British Navy, the largest in the world, consists of 590 ships of war, carrying from 1 to 120 guns each, of different calibres, which are either in ordinary or commission. Of this immense flotilla, 105 are armed steamers, for active sea-service. To man this extensive fleet, in time of peace, there are 23,000 able-bodied seamen, 2000 lads, and 14,000 royal marines, making 39,000 individuals; a number to be greatly increased in the event of war.-' -Times. Sprats have been taken at Torquay, during the last three months, to the amount of 2,000 tons. Ice. In the Times of the 12th instant, it is calculated that 800 tons of ice had been collected on the previous day from the various sources afforded by the basin of the canal near King's Cross; the principal northern depôt for this summer luxury being in Calthorpe fields, Grays Inn Road. The ice is brought in vans, carts, and donkey trucks; and some of the carts are drawn by men, women, and children, thus affording to many individuals, a temporarily lucrative employment. Hereford Cathedral is in so dilapidated a state as to require repairs, (including restorations,) amounting to £17,559, towards which there has already been subscribed nearly £7,000. Charms of Music.-Warrup, a native youth of Western Australia, who lived several months as a servant to Governct Grey, once accompanied him to an amateur theatre at Perth; and when the actors came forward and sang "God save the Queen," he burst into tears. He certainly could not have comprehended the words of the song, and, therefore, must have been affected by the music alone. Personal Feelings.-We are all, in one way or another, seasitive plants, and may all feel the rubs of unkindness, however others may give us credit for the sensibility.-Tongue of Time. Emigration to Australia.-Time and interest are all worth much more in Australia than they are in England, and every one can realise upon his capital, and speculate profitably upon his intelligence, activity, and strength; for all of these he gets paid-hence but few men are willing to follow pro fessions. Clergymen too often turn farmers and speculators, even if they do not altogether throw aside their sacred cha racter. Medical men but rarely pursue their practice, when such remunerating fields of enterprise are laid open to them; soldiers abandon their calling; and the government-officers are all virtually farmers and stock-owners.-Grey's Aus tralia. LONDON: W. BRITTAIN, PATERNOSTER ROW. Printed by J. Rider, 14, Bartholomew Close. THE TOWER OF LONDON. NEVER do we remember to have seen the love of exaggeration on the one hand, and the appetite for the marvellous on the other, carried to such an excess as on the occasion of the late Fire at the Tower. Not content with the destruction of the Grand Storehouse, the papers must burn down the whole Tower-arsenal, church, donjon, magazines, storehouses, barracks, museums, public offices, and all. Our neighbours across the water, with their usual verve, (Devil! mind you don't print this nerve!) went into the question in detail; composing most joyfully lachrymose elegies on "les vingt-et-un rois," and howling most bewitchingly over the cinders of "la salle du roi Jean," and other localities equally unknown on this side of the Channel. The loss, according to the least enthusiastic of the journals, was between one and two millions. In fact, it has turned out to be less than a quarter of a million-building included. The salvage alone amounts to upwards of twenty thousand pounds. A large portion, too, of the arms destroyed, were on the old flint principle, whose worthlessness has been signally proved in the late Chinese campaign; where a detached company of our troops, armed with flint muskets, was surrounded by the enemy in great numbers, and unable to fire a shot in their defence, from their flint locks being rendered entirely useless by the rain. They were at length relieved by a party of their comrades, supplied with percussion That settles the question of Flint versus Copper arms. cap. With regard to the building destroyed, it was a consumed ugly one before, and will soon rise like a phoenix from, &c. &c. (See all the newspapers, a large majority of the magazines, and the totality of the "private accounts" for the conclusion of the sentence.) Of the antiquities preserved in the Tower, very few were placed in the Grand Storehouse; and of these few, the best remain. But we are not going to describe the whole of the events of the Fire, nor to enumerate the whole of the curiosities saved from its ravages. This has already been done usque ad nauseam. It is the scene which our print represents, that more immediately concerns us. You are now, as the warder would say, in the Grand Storehouse. Look to the right, and you will see the great anchor taken at Scamper-down, (Camperdown is the word in the Annual Register, but the warder must know :) beyond that, is the gigantic mortar used by King William the Third, (or Fourth, the warder is not sure which,) at the siege of Namur: the upright gun against the wall was taken from the French, (N. B. if there are any Frenchmen in the party, the words "from the French," are delicately suppressed by the cicerone,) at Cherbourg, in the year one-thousand-seven-hundred-and-fifty-eight. Look to the left, and you will see a large collection of ladies and gentlemen anxious to contemplate the awful scene around; and to smuggle away in their muffs and greatcoat pockets, (previously emptied of all superfluous gloves and pocket handkerchiefs,) as many pounds weight of gun-locks, and pistol-barrels, as may be likely to pass muster under the sagacious eyes of the cerberi of the A division.* The upper line of windows belonged to the small arms armoury, where the muskets were stored; the lower one supplied light to the train of artillery, so named from having once contained the field train of artillery, since removed to Woolwich. Above these two apartments was the tent room, formerly employed as a store-room for the camp equipage, but latterly used to contain the old official papers and volumes of the Ordnance Office. Through the opening of the principal entrance to the train is shewn a portion of the White Tower. The danger of this building from its proximity to the scene of devastation, will immediately be seen. At the time of the fire, its windows were covered with wet blankets, on which water was continually thrown; and every other precaution taken to preserve it from the flames, which ingenuity could devise, or exertion effect. Thank Heaven, the WHITE TOWER still exists! The donjon-keep of the Norman conqueror-the venerable palace of our glorious Edwards and Henries, still looks proudly over the good city of London, and bids as fair to flourish a dozen centuries to come, as when she first raised her snowy head at the bidding of the stout Gundulph of Rochester. At the period of the Fire, the number of arms in the armoury was considerably below the average amount, which is 600,000 stand. The number of percussion-muskets destroyed was 11,000; with bayonets, 26,000. Flint-locks, 22,000; percussion-locks, 7,000; 12,158 pistols; 75 double-barrelled pistols, with moveable butts; 1,366 swords; 2,271 sword-blades; 2,026 plug-bayonets; 192 spears; 95 pikes; 210 musketoons; 709 carbines; 3 wall-pieces; 279 cuirasses; 276 helmets; and 52 drums. There was also destroyed the military trophy, erected only a few days before the Fire, consisting of Chinese arms, &c. taken by the British troops at the capture of Chusan. The Board of Ordnance have determined on preserving most of the large cannon, &c. which are whole; and those which are injured or broken, are to be recast into their original forms. The prefixed view has been copied, by permission, from a clever drawing by Edward Falkner, esq., architect, effectively lithographed by Mr. Francis Ireland. It is altogether a most interesting and well executed memorial of the late conflagration. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. FROM THE SPANISH OF LOPE DE VEGA. LET no one say that there is need Ah no! the love that kills indeed, The spark which but by slow degrees Is habit, friendship, what you please; To write, to sigh, and to converse, And send one's heart to school. Love all at once should from the earth Start up full-grown and tall; If not an Adam at his birth, He is no love at all.-LORD HOLLAND. stand out of the way."-"Won't do, Marm, I tell you. Can't allow you to pass with that 'ere wisor of an 'elmet on your face." The lady had on a patent respirator. |